Huge win for car owners! All TSBs to be made public.
The Center for Auto Safety just made the NHTSA (US Government) make public the full text of all TSBs from now on. They are the same organization that has petitioned the NHTSA & filed lawsuits to protect car owners over exploding gas tanks & other major safety issues.
Whenever you drive in your car, you are safer thanks in part to a lot of work over the years by this small but very effective consumer advocacy group.

Ford Has Awful Customer Service

CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2002 Ford Explorer is hands-down our worst vehicle on record. "Avoid like the plague" is putting it lightly.

The 2002-2005 Explorer has a very well-established record of expensive transmission failure at under 100k miles. The Explorer has an enclosed transmission which is typically replaced with a rebuilt transmission at a cost of almost $3,000.

Another common problem for the 2002-2003 Explorer is wheel bearing failure at around 90k miles, with a typical repair bill of $500 to $1000 depending on how many wheel bearings failed.

Adding insult to injury, the 2002-2005 Explorer also has a massive problem with the rear panel cracking. While it's a minor annoyance compared to transmission failure, ironically the crack usually goes right through the Ford logo.

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2002 Ford Explorer Owner Comments

Explorer Eddie Baurer 4.0L

Automatic transmission

105,031 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

THE FOLLOWING IS ENITRELY BASED UPON MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND REFLECTS ONLY MY PERSONAL OPINION IN REGARDS TO FORD MOTOR VEHICLES AND MY 2002 FORD EXPLORER, EDDIE BAURER EDITION. ANYONE WHO READS THIS EXPRESSION OF HOW I FEEL SHOULD KNOW THAT I AM NOT A MECHANIC OR AN AUTOMOBILE EXPERT, ONLY A VERY DISAPPOINTED CONSUMER WHO CHOOSES TO SHARE MY DISAPPOINTMENT.

I invite anyone who wishes to read about my entire experience and see the invoices and documentation AND THE PICTURES OF MY 2002 FORD EXPLORER WITH MY OPINION EXPRESSED FOR EVERYONE TO SEE - I painted my opinion in BRIGHT YELLOW PAINT on MY LIFTGATE WINDOW. My web-site will be published on April 12-13 2007 - WWW.FORDFAILURES.COM

FORD Motor Vehicles apparently uses FAILURE as the foundation of their customer service program.

I essentially refused to allow ADAMSON FORD, located in Birmingham, AL, to work on my car until I fully understood the nature of the needed repairs. ADAMSON FORD NEVER EXPLAINED THE PROBLEM TO MY SATISFACTION.

However, Chris at AUTO SERVICES COMPANY, Inc. - my extended warranty company AND in my opinion - AWESOME, ACCOMODATING, THOROUGH, GENEROUS, DELIGHTFUL, VERY CUSTOMER SERVICE ORIENTED - explained that all the work was a SOFT-OVER HAUL of the transmission.

Chris' helpfulness, patience, and quick responses were what anyone could ever ask for from a warranty/insurance company and ASC and Chris deserve HIGH COMMENDATION because their response to my problems and my worries and me, personally, were the polar OPPOSITE of FORD Motor Vehicles' FAILURE TO FOLLOW UP ON MY COMPLAINTS AS OF TODAY, April 11, 2007.

20 DAYS - THE NUMBER OF DAYS FORD MOTOR VEHICLES CUSTOMER SERVICE RELATIONSHIP DEPARTMENT HAS . . . totally and completely . . . . FAILED, FAILED, FAILED . . . to even respond to my complaints and concerns to FORD Motor Vehicles’ Customer Service Call Center employee - JOHN, ID# 7235, at their customer service department. All I can say is that I could not tell the difference between him and an automated response voice (and I DID TELL HIM THAT I COULDN’T TELL THE DIFFERENCE!)

John, ID #7235, didn’t care.

MY BIG BEEFS with FORD MOTOR VEHICLES are numerous and much exacerbated specifically by Birmingham, AL’s ADAMSON FORD - Director of Service, JAMES WHITEHEAD - who, in my opinion, epitomizes the sleaziness associated with the automobile industry. I asked Mr. Whitehead - verbatim - if the solenoid pack in my transmission was a "ticking time bomb" under the hood of my 2002 Ford Explorer, if it would fail again - and he said YES.

I made him repeat this answer to this exact question again - in the presence of my father when I came back to complain about a second crack in the back panel of my lift gate that appeared while my vehicle was being simultaneously serviced for the RECALL on the lift gate hinges. (Just scroll through the other complaints on the 2002 FORD EXPLORER for this info).

Mr. James Whitehead again confirmed that the solenoid pack WILL FAIL AGAIN!!! THUS CAUSING THE TRANSMISSION TO FAIL. And only with persistence and the support of my incredibly patient and observant father - did Mr. Whitehead agree to fix the panel - but that is a different chapter of this story. As are the other issues such as the sluggishness in my new solenoid pack. The refusal to provide me with a rental car for the recalled part and the damage done to my car while they supposedly fixed the recalled part. And the refusal to notify me of the significant delay (3 days) in this “repairing” or provide appropriate explanation. And Mr. Whitehead’s gender discriminating behavior in responding in a timely manner to my father’s call after ignoring mine – on the first go around ---------and then FAILING TO HONOR HIS WORD by failing to call me the next morning to let me know if the part came in – AND THEN SHOWING FURTHER DISCRIMINATION AND INSULT BY NOT EVEN CALLING ME TO LET ME KNOW WHEN THE VEHICLE WOULD BE READY, but instead calling my father. (I love and adore my father and know that he wants me to be safe, not taken advantage of, and happy – and so I, of course, confided in him about my problems with ADAMSON FORD and FORD MOTOR VEHICLES and have his total SUPPORT IN EXPRESSING MY OPINION of how FORD Motor Vehicles FAILS in vehicle owner customer service.

A DIRECTOR OF SERVICE AT A FORD MOTOR VEHICLES DEALERSHIP TOLD ME THAT HE KNEW THE SOLENOID PACK - WHICH IS AN ELECTRICAL PART OF THE ENCLOSED TRANSMISSION THAT ACTUALIZES THE CHANGING BETWEEN GEARS - WILL FAIL ------------ and since FORD refused to provide me with further details about this part, I can only conclude that this part endangers my life since it is electrical and will fail and if it fails while I am driving on the highway, my 2002 FORD EXPLORER WILL COME TO A DEAD STOP , POSSIBLY WHILE I AM IN TRAFFIC OR ANOTHER DANGEROUS SITUATION ----- AND FORD KNOWS THIS.

And then there is the small matter of a missing 450-500 miles on my odometer – and I have the invoices, a CARFAX, my NHTSA filing form, and a receipt from Express Oil Change to prove the discrepancy is there.

I am ONE FORD vehicle OWNER who REFUSES to accept FORD MOTOR VEHICLES' FAILURE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR DEFECTIVE DESIGN AND MANUFACTURE OF MY VEHICLE, AS WELL AS THE NUMEROUS OTHER FAILURES, IN MY OPINION, THAT FORD CONTINUES TO MAKE EVERY DAY.

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